The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD; French: Fonds international de développement agricole (FIDA)) is an international financial institution and a specialised agency of the United Nations dedicated to eradicating poverty and hunger in rural areas of developing countries. It was established as an international financial institution in 1977 through United Nations General Assembly Resolution 32/107 (15 December 1977) as one of the major outcomes of the 1974 World Food Conference. Seventy-five percent of the world's poor live in rural areas in developing countries, yet only 4% of official development assistance goes to agriculture.

The strategic policy of IFAD is detailed in Strategic Framework for IFAD 2011–2015: Enabling the Rural Poor to Overcome Poverty. Its headquarters is in Rome, Italy, and is a member of the United Nations Development Group.[1] The President of the IFAD is Gilbert F. Houngbo from Togo, who was elected for a four-year term in 2017.

Transparent and competitive markets for agricultural inputs and produce

Opportunities for rural off-farm employment and enterprise development

Local and national policy and programming

All of IFAD's decisions – on regional, country and thematic strategies, poverty reduction strategies, policy dialogue and development partners – are made with these principles and objectives in mind. As reflected in the strategic framework, IFAD is committed to achieving the Millennium Development Goals, in particular the target to halve the proportion of hungry and extremely poor people by 2015.

Underlying these objectives is IFAD's belief that rural poor people must be empowered to lead their own development if poverty is to be eradicated. Poor people must be able to develop and strengthen their own organisations, so they can advance their own interests and dismantle the obstacles that prevent many of them from creating better lives for themselves. They must be able to have a say in the decisions and policies that affect their lives, and they need to strengthen their bargaining power in the marketplace.

Through loans and grants, IFAD works with governments to develop and finance programmes and projects that enable rural poor people to overcome poverty themselves.

Since starting operations in 1978, IFAD has invested $12 billion, DM 7.5 billion in 860 projects and programmes that have reached some 370 million poor rural people.

Governments and other financing sources in recipient countries, including project participants, contributed $10.8 billion (€7.5 billion), and multilateral, bilateral and other donors provided approximately another $8.8 billion, €5 billion in cofinancing. This represents a total investment of about $19.6 billion (€15 billion).

IFAD tackles poverty not only as a lender, but also as an advocate for rural poor people. Its multilateral base provides a natural global platform to discuss important policy issues that influence the lives of rural poor people, as well as to draw attention to the centrality of rural development to meeting the Millennium Development Goals.

IFAD is also a partner in Compact2025, a partnership that develops and disseminates evidence-based advice to politicians and other decision-makers aimed at ending hunger and undernutrition in the coming 10 years. IFAD is represented on the Leadership Council of Compact2025 by its president.[2]

IFAD approved US$30 million soft loans for fourth phase of the North Eastern Region Community Resource Management Project (NERCORMP) in India.

In 2017, IFAD signed a $53 million financing agreement with Madagascar to reduce food insecurities and boost climate change resilience in rural areas.[3]

Membership in IFAD is open to all member states of the United Nations or its specialised agencies or the International Atomic Energy Agency. A state becomes a member of IFAD by ratifying the multilateral treaty known as the Agreement establishing the International Fund for Agricultural Development. The Governing Council is IFAD's highest decision-making authority, with the Member States each represented by a governor and alternate governor. The Council meets annually. The Executive Board, responsible for overseeing the general operations of IFAD and approving loans and grants, is composed of 18 members and 18 alternate members. The President, who serves for a four-year term (renewable once), is IFAD's chief executive officer and chair of the Executive Board. The current, and sixth, President of IFAD is Gilbert F. Houngbo, who was elected for a first four-year term in 2017.

The other UN member states that are not IFAD member states are Andorra, Australia (which joined in 1977 but subsequently denounced the agreement), Bahrain, Belarus, Brunei, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Monaco, Poland, San Marino, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkmenistan, and Ukraine.

The prices of basic food commodities increased rapidly during the 2007–08 world food price crisis. In only the first quarter of 2008, wheat and maize prices increased by 130% and 30% respectively over 2007 figures. Rice prices, while rising moderately in 2006 and more so in 2007, rose 10% in February 2008 and an additional 10% in March 2008. The threat to food security in developing countries increased in stride. Coordinated action by the international community was essential.

IFAD's immediate response was to make available up to $200 million, €175 million from existing loans and grants to provide an urgent boost to agricultural production in the developing world, in the face of high food prices and low food stocks. But IFAD would continue to press for rapid and urgent longer-term investment in agriculture, including access to land, water, technology, financial services and markets, to enable the 450 million smallholder farms in developing countries to grow more food, more productively, and thereby increase their incomes and resilience, and respond to the increasing global demand for food.

Despite improvements over the past ten years that have lifted more than 350 million rural people out of extreme poverty, global poverty remains a massive and predominantly rural phenomenon with 70% of the developing world's 1.4 billion extremely poor people living in rural areas. IFAD's 2011 Rural Poverty Report demonstrated that during the past decade, the overall rate of extreme poverty in rural areas of developing countries has dropped from 48% to 34%, led by dramatic gains in East Asia.The report also points to the persistence of poverty in rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

IFAD came under fire in 2010 when the expenses for Nigerian agricultural entomologist Kanayo Nwanze, who had previously deemed UN staff that cared about high salaries and benefits “mercenaries”,[8] was paying himself nearly $300,000 per year in a housing allowance and discretionary expenses, in addition to the $194,329 salary he receives.[9] The controversy was so great Italy threatened to pull its funding even though IFAD is headquartered in Rome.[10] The Australian government had already withdrawn from funding in 2007 due to similar concerns.[11]

In response to the controversy, when Nwanze was re-appointed in 2013, his compensation was capped at what he was already receiving.[12]